Refillable lipstick containers



Nov. 11, 1958 H. F. SHOTTON'.

REFILLABLE LIPSTICK CONTAINERS Filed Jan. 17, 1955 film wil .RRIK

INVEN'I"OR 1 Harold F.- Shotton TTORNEY United States Patent ()fiice 2,859,867 Patented Nov. 1 1, 1958 REFILLABLE LIPSTICK CONTAINERS Harold F. Shotton, Waterbury, Conn., assignor to Scovill Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application January 17, 1955, Serial No. 482,176

1 Claim. (Cl. 20656) This invention relates to holders for lipstick containers, particularly containers of the retractable or swivel type which are now more or less of standard basic construction and well known to the trade.

Considerable effort has been made of late to provide some device which will enable the user to replace a wornout stick with a new stick of material. This practice of making a lipstick replaceable has been very unsatisfactory due to the fact that in replacing the old stick with a new one it was first necessary to remove the remains of the pomade from the carrier cup and next to manually grip the new pomade stick to make the change-over which resulted in a messy operation for the handler and also causing unsightly fingermarks on the new stick of material. Also, such attempts usually required a change in structure to make the container over into a refillable type, which would add to the cost of the structure and also resulted in decreasing the size of the stick of material that could be used in the refillable container.

My invention makes use of the standard swivel type container with no basic structural change in the container itself, and when the old stick of material is exhausted, the entire inside container may be discarded and a container with the new pomade stick of material will be substituted. Thus the relatively expensive outer cover and base need not be discarded.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide an improved holder device that is adapted to removably receive the operating head of a standard swivel lipstick container by a telescopic frictional engagement and which is also provided with a further means to frictionally receive a cover serving to encase the container when assembled to the holder.

A further object is to make a holder device having the necessary characteristics out of one piece of material so that it will be relatively cheap to manufacture and light in weight.

With these and other objects in view, the invention will be readily understood from the following detailed description of one preferred embodiment shown in the accompanying drawing, whereof:

Fig. l is a side view of the holder unit and cover embodying the invention as it appears assembled.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view on an enlarged scale.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the holder unit and a partial view of the container in separated state.

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view through the unit taken along the line 44 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the holder unit, per se.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of a modified form of holder unit, and

Fig. 7 is a transverse sectional view taken along the' line 7-7 of Fig. 6.

Referring now to the drawing, the numeral 10 designates generally a swivel type of lipstick container showing only the outer casing 11 and the operating head 12 at its lower end, the operating mechanism being well known in the art, typical of which is Patent No. 1,504,216 and further description is considered unnecessary. It is suflicient to state that when the casing 11 is held and the operating head 12 is rotated the cosmetic stick material will be elevated out of or retracted into the container depending on the direction in which the head is rotated. The operating head 12 is preferably of slightly larger diameter than the diameter of casing 11.

The holder into which the lipstick container is assembled as a unit, generally indicated by the numeral 14, is preferably made from a single cupped shell and is formed to provide a lower operating knob 15 and a tubular portion 16. Between the knob 15 and the tubular portion 16, the holder 14 is provided with an inwardly extending flange 17 formed by previously forming the holder wall inwardly and collapsing it into a platform of double wall thickness. The knob 15 being of larger diameter than the tubular portion 16 provides a shoulder 17a against which a cover or closure cap 18 is adapted to abut when assembled over the unit. The tubular portion 16 adjacent the knob is formed with three inwardly equally spaced longitudinal ribs 19 of such height that their crest diameter is slightly less than the diameter of the operating head 12 to have a frictional grip with said operating head of a suificient degree to firmly hold the head for operating the same and still allow the head to be telescoped into and out of held position relative to said ribs. The flange 17 serves as a stop to prevent the operating head 12 from being forced beyond the limits of the ribs 19 into the hollow area of the knob 15. The tubular portion 16 extends a sufiicient distance above the length of the ribs 19 to stabilize the position of the container 10 within the holder to prevent tilting of the container relative to the holder with only the ribs gripping upon the operating knob 15.

The container 10 and the tubular portion 16 of the holder 14, When not being used, are encased in the closure cap 18. The cap 18 is designed to fit over the entire length of the container 10 and is frictionally held upon the holder member 14 by means of three ribs 20 struck outwardly of the tubular portion 16 adjacent the knob 15 substantially half way between the inward ribs 19 previously described. The cap 18 when assembled over the container is adapted to rest or abut against the shoulder 17a as a stop. The width of the ribs 20 proportionately are considerably wider than the ribs 19. This is to provide a smooth fitting grip upon the closure cap so as to make it easier to assemble or remove the cap from the holder member.

Figs. 6 and 7 show a modified form of holder member 14a which is substantially the same as the first form, the only diiference being that the inwardly formed flange 17 is omitted and in place thereof relatively deep nibs 21 are formed inwardly at the lower end of each inward rib 19a adjacent the shoulder 17b. The nibs 21 provide lugs 22 extending inwardly beyond the crest diameter of said ribs 19a to provide a suitable seat or stop against which the operating head of the container is adapted to rest when the holder member 14a is properly located.

Slight changes may be made in the detailed construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims hereto appended.

I claim:

A combination holder and lipstick container of the swivel type, which container has an outer casing and an exposed operating head at its lower end of cylindrical shape and of large diameter than said casing, said holder comprising a tubular portion adapted to surround the lower part of the container so that the upper part of the container may be grasped by the fingers, said holder having a hollow operating knob integral with and larger than said tubular portion, a series of equally spaced axially arranged ribs formed inwardly for a portion of the length of said tubular portion adjacent said knob, said ribs having 'a orest diameter slightly less than the diameter of'the operating head to frictionally embrace the same sufliciently to rotate said head relative to said container by the manipulation of said holder, and stop means in the form of lugs extending radially inwardly from the lowerend of the inwardly formed ribs and serving to locate said container with reference to said holder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Friedman Nov. 8, 1932 Braselton Sept. 2, 1952 Calhoun Sept. 16, 1952 Balasevich Sept. 16, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain v i Nov. 5, 1931 Switzerland Nov. 1, 1948 Belgium Apr. 15, 1953 Great Britain June 1, 1955 

